5 Questions - 5 Readers - 5 Weeks: Question 3 - Favourite Authors
I have to admit that I don't have one favourite author. I have multiple all-time favourites! John Steinbeck, Stephen King, Stephen R Donaldson, Mary Stewart, Caiseal Mor, Camilla Blackberg, and Ann Cleeves are just a few of my favourite fiction authors. Non-fiction is a little different as it depends on what I'm researching at any given time. Authors that have proved pivotal to me though include Mary Daly (Outercourse), Monica Sjoo and Barbara Mor (The Great Cosmic Mother) and Dr Clare Wright (Forgotten Rebels of Eureka), and Paul Irish (Hidden in Plain View). Again, just to name a few.
So I put it to my group of happy readers, do you have an all-time favourite author? An author whose book you’ll buy just because they wrote it? Here are their answers...
Hazel: I have several old favourites Carole Matthews, Jenny Colgan and Jill Mansell that I will buy regardless, but I’ve also found a few new ones. I’m working my way through their back catalogues, Katie Forde included, so she may well be in that list once I’ve read everything of hers.
Candice: I couldn’t narrow it down to just one favourite author, but I have every piece of work from Ruth Ware, Tana French, Gilly McMillan and Clare Mackintosh. Will Dean is working on his second book now, and I will follow his work to the end of the earth.
Jay: I have several! I discovered Agatha Christie in my teens and gradually hunted down every book she’d ever written. I bought Sara Barnard’s last novel knowing nothing other than its title. I’ll be buying whatever Laura Steven writes next. Harlan Coben and Linwood Barclay both write amazing plot-twist thrillers. Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff will be collaborating again soon, and I will definitely be snapping those up.
Andrew: I'm always on the lookout for a new favourite author, as most of my perennial favourites have unfortunately passed away; Frank Herbert, Tolkien, Philip K. Dick, Terry Pratchett, Iain (M.) Banks, David Gemmell, Arthur C. Clarke - to name just some of them! I do find enjoyment in reading the continuing legacies of Dune (Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson) and Lord of the Rings (Christopher Tolkien), and I think Terry Brooks, Shannara series has just gotten better as it progressed.
Catherine: My favourite author is Stephen King, and has been since I first read Misery at the age of 15. I think I’ve got all of his novels, and have read them all too (except his most recent, The Outsider), including the full Dark Tower series (twice!).
Paul (our bonus reader for this feature): Just the one? How unfair. I will buy anything by Harlan Coben. His writing is slick and amusing. Amanda Jennings would be a 'must buy', Patrick Gale and Michelle Paver too.
There you have it. We're all as bad as each other!
I now hand it over to you - who is your favourite author of all-time or do you, like my trusty group (and myself) find it hard to pick just one from the overflowing bookshelves of amazing writers?
My readers are:
